New release on Wrench Records - "More Songs About Motorcycles & Death", a 6-song 12" EP!
Black Time released their debut LP on their own label in 2004, and have released a number of records since then, on labels such as In The Red, Yakisakana, Bancroft and P.Trash - and now have 3 albums released on In The Red. They did a tour of the Western USA in late 2009, and play regular gigs in London.
The point is talent over ability, ideas over proficiency, energy over competence - action...time...and vision. I’m a monk…you’re a monk…we’re all monks!!! Staring out, being stared out, friction, trouble...hands balled into fists thrust into pockets walking down the street starting at my shoes getting spat on by strangers... Basement dancing and drinking to soul + punk 45s. At some point in the confusion instruments are picked up and the resulting mess plants the seed of the band. Shambolic but passionate holler and wailin’ at the dying of the red lite.
Self-released vinyl-only long-player ‘Blackout’ (issued before they’d even played a note on stage!) is 14 songs of bile and rage and ends up on many punk reviewers end of year lists. Terminal Boredom came up with their own mathematical equation to summarise its charms: “Dangerhouse/LA punk + Pussy Galore/NYC noise/trash x (SF budget rock aesthetic) ? British DIY = best album of 2004”. Since then the band has vomited out 2 more full-length albums, a split LP (with Californian one man band sensation Ty Segall), and numerous 7” singles on labels such as In The Red, Skulltones, Yakisakana, Bancroft, Rehab, Show & Tell, A Fistful Of Records, Hate, Telephone Explosion, Shake Your Ass and Trakmarx. The band have toured in Europe and the USA but keep a relatively low profile in their homeland, occasionally venturing out of their dilapidated north London mansion to play a show at their friend’s Corn Rocket night. Black Time members sometimes moonlight in other combos such as Black Mamba Beat, Sexaphone and Wake Up Dead.
Their hypnotic sound features primitive rhythms, feedback, tape loop psychedelia, 2-note riffs, co-ed angst, trash garage aesthetics, organ drones, bombed-out FX, fuzz bass and fractured melodies, all strung together with Lemmy Caution’s doomed meditations on work, death, city living, work, privatisation, sex, work, mental illness, revenge, and work.
Sometimes they’ll even branch out and tackle other lyrical subject matter! This new motorcycle-themed concept EP on Wrench is somewhat of a follow-up to their extravagantly packaged 1-sided ‘New Vague Themes’ 12” on P.Trash Records from 2005 which took French 60s new wave movies as a jumping off point for 5 cacophonous blasts of home-recorded garage-punk.
The band had this to say about the songs on the new record:
FAST MOTORBIKE IN THE KITCHEN - Repressed hobbyists in suburban hell reminisce about summer holidays. 70s art-rock on a 10p budget.
LIONS VS. HUNTERS - The sad fate of Leicester speedway teams. A tubby commotion at the feet.
THE LIVING DEAD - Embarrassment of your mates coming round and Beryl Reid is your Satanist mum. Surf pop with two-wheel ton-up sound fx.
CYCLES - Keying the boss’ car whilst daydreaming about keying his face. Scratchy echo punk with marching drums.
MALLORY PARK - Race meet interrupted by mentally ill relative. Doomy bass drone and hoover noise.
HARLEY DAVIDSON - Motorbike as phallic weapon in psychic warfare. Gainsbourg as playground gang chant.
Black Time now have a YouTube clip of "Fast Motorbike In The Kitchen" - click here!
The following rant describing their debut LP, copied from In The Red's web site, sums up the band perfectly (despite the fact that it was written 5 years ago):
This debut album was recorded, mixed & mastered entirely in analogue & pressed on black-dyed virgin heavy vinyl only in a small edition. The band claim to hate CDs, but we've been granted permission to re-release this fantastic album on that very format anyway. Black Time only currently play live at one of the regular blues parties that take place in their basement hideout. The select few who have been initiated into this cult of sound have reported loss of speech, hair falling out, physical incapacity & loss of bowel control after a performance. The Black Time plan to tour the deep south of America in 2005 with a revue featuring motorcycle leather boys, wall-projected homemade slasher films, whip-cracking tiger girls & media professionals eating their own shit LIVE ON STAGE. Records on the dansette prior to the weekend long recording session that produced the BLACKOUT long player included: ELECTRIC EELS, RIP-OFFS, THE FALL, PUSSY GALORE, HUGGY BEAR, WARSAW, HOUND DOG TAYLOR, BIRTHDAY PARTY, CRIME, GOSSIP, KING TUBBY, HUNCHES, GERMS, RITES OF SPRING, GUITAR WOLF, BIKINI KILL, PAGANS, SUICIDE, MONORCHID, BO DIDDLEY, NATION OF ULYSEES, FLEASH EATERS, PRINCE, MUMMIES, BLACK FLAG, LINK WRAY and THE PHANTOM...that should give you an idea where these cats are coming from....or maybe not. This is the heavy vampire sound. Fuck & Rage. They are the undead stumbling into twilight feeding off broken youthful dreams unable to stop our endless march. Blind & deaf neutered howling. The inescapable magnet pull of American rock n roll records: modern girls & modern rock n roll. The cheap tobacco, tea, beer, movies & radio palliative that George warned us about, standing between us & revolution.
This 12" record is available from Wrench Records mailorder.